My first swimbait fish was in 1994? on the Castaic Hard Head/Soft body. I caught it from a rental boat at Lake Mission Viejo. I was a whopping 4 pounds or so. No pics that I can find at least. That got me hooked and I have been throwing them ever since.

My first 10+ pounder came from an undisclosed location at night while fishing with Mickey Ellis (Owner of 3:16 Lure Company) in 2004. We were testing the 10" Wake Bait and he had been catching fish at this place consistently. We made the run and left around 11pm and arrived around 12:30am. We walked the shore leap frogging down the bank. I made a long cast parallel to the bank right next to this big tree. Within 3 or 4 cranks the water exploded! It looked like a kid jumped in the water. A quick battle brought the fish to my feet and it went 11.2.

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/7103-11pounder3a.JPG

I was so excited because I caught this fish on my birthday. It was my first dd bass and it was caught on a swimbait! I remember posting it on this site the following day. Since then I have caught a few more over 10 and not all on swimbaits. It opened my eyes to the world of swimbait and trophy fishing to say the least. In the process I got to meet and fish with people like Rob, Cam, Nico, Matt Peters and many others that are just excellent anglers. I have learned A LOT since that time.

The best part about this story is that I went back to the same spot and used the same bait on the same day the following year and caught a 13-2 :)

http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/7104-13-2_001.jpg